Photo Review April/May 2015: Disney, Eclipse TA, London

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Yeah - finally home, have all the photos uploaded and ready to start my photo review!

DH gave me this trip as my 50th birthday gift, although my birthday isn't until June 3, he got a great deal so we went!

Friday, April 17 I logged into work for the day (I work from home). It was a hectic and crazy day as our internet went down for several hours and I missed a few meetings - not a great start.

Finally finished work about 4pm and did the last load of laundry, packed my bag and we headed to the airport to catch the red eye flight from Phoenix to Charlotte, change planes and land in Orlando at 9:30 in the morning.

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Because we had the Deluxe Disney dining plan, we got sit down meals with appetizer, entree and desert.

For lunch, the appetizer was a wonderful Caprese salad. Terry had spaghetti and meatballs but I had a great steak with mac and cheese. For desert I had a nice panna cotta and Terry had a chocolate Cherry tart. Our waitress, Lisa was from Indiana and was very personable. I could do this meal over and over again and not get tired!

But since we had a late lunch, it seemed like only a short time until our dinner at the Brown Derby. We stopped to ask them if we could change the reservation to later because we needed to go back to the hotel to shower and change. They Maitre d' Mark was wonderful and told us we didn't need to change, although it was a signature dining restaurant, he said the staff dressed up so we didn't have to. Our waiter, Sam from Morocco gave great recommendations.

Terry had a salad with peaches while I opted for Crab Cake appetizer.

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For dinner, the lobster and grouper was good but Terry's steak was the best plate of the evening.

The desert trio was interesting and my favorite was the blueberry cobbler.

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Tuesday morning we rented a car from Enterprise to drive to Miami. The total cost was less than $14.00 and they even came to the hotel to pick us up in the morning.

We drove to Miami and stopped on the way to find some Coke Life and a few other things we needed before boarding the ship. There was a bit of an issue turning the car in when we got to Miami. The rental place was in the Doubletree hotel. We parked out front and Terry went inside to find the rental care person as I got the bags out of the trunk.

The rental car agent was a young woman with long black hair. She told us we had to return the car somewhere else because she ran out of parking spaced. I told her no, our rental agreement listed this address for the return and we were already late getting to the ship. She told me the other place was closer (I talked to Enterprise when I rented the car and knew this location was closest to the pier). I refused and she again said I couldn't leave the car there. I did interrupt her and tell her I had a contract to return to her so she was going to take it. I never used any bad language but I probably did raise my voice as I was upset. She walked away saying she didn't have to take that from anyone. She went in the hotel and into a staff only door and refused to come back out. I left the keys with the hotel valet and got into the cab to go to the pier.

We told the cab driver we wanted to go to the port. He kept saying "airport" and we kept saying "port". Finally we told him "boat" and he understood. We got onboard about 2:30 pm and went straight to our room which was wonderful. Boarding was a breeze, no lines and no waiting. I called Enterprise and they corporate office said I did the right thing to leave the car and they would check on the return.

We rested before muster drill and immediately after that went to the Cruise Critic informal gathering at the sunset bar. Met some very nice people! I was hungry but so tired from an exhausting 3 days at Disney so we went to the Ocean View cafe and had a quick snack, then went to our room and slept for 12 hours!

Room 7346 - category 2B

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I was worried about so many sea days - this was my first transatlantic but it was great! We were up at 0730 since we had gone to bed so early. We had early dining and hadn't even made it to dinner the night before. The breakfast was good and the coffee was better than any other cruise ship coffee I've ever had. We explored the ship a little, then went back to the room for a "nap".

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I'm really looking forward to more photos of the Eclipse on the 1st voyage after the dry dock.

Thanks for sharing- we will be sailing on her in late July.

Thanks, I hope to post more later today. The trip seemed to catch up to me yesterday and all I've wanted to do is sleep lately, but work gets in the way. Need that paycheck so we can go on the next cruise!

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I was on the Eclipse TA also. Did not know about the solar panels on the ship. Saw the Coke life soda at Heathrow airport almost bought one for the plane to try. Thought of you.☺

Denise

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

I saw it also! Hard to find in the US, but we saw it all over London!

I have never heard of Coke Life. I looked it up and see that they have it in my local The Fresh Market grocery store. I'll have to try some. I keep a supply of Coke Zero in my second fridge and allow myself only one can a week. :D

Can't wait for more on the review!

PS - As many times as I have been on the Solstice class ship, I never knew those were solar panels above the solarium. Just thought it was the glass roof design to provide shade. :rolleyes:

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We met lots of nice folks and sorted out the shared tours. After the short speech by the cruise director, several people used to microphone to call out other parties to connect with those faces we've only been chatting with online. I thought the comments by the cruise director on the phrase "cruise critic" were interesting. She commented on how critic is such a negative term. That part left me with the feeling I wasn't sure she liked cruise critic but I as only half paying attention. Several senior ship staff came but they were on the side when she introduced them and I couldn't see them at all.

After the party I stopped at the cafe for a quick snack

We spent the rest of the afternoon doing nothing but wandering and relaxing before changing going going to the dining room for dinner. I didn't take my camera but I had the watermelon salad which was good. The stuffed mushroom was much better than the one I had on the Celebrity Century. I din't care for the coconut sorbet.

We saw the show "Edge" it seemed good but I had a hard time following some of the musical arrangements. It was weird to see a Bruce Springsteen Tap Dance rendition. I was tired thought so it was probably a good show. I love the acrobats!

We walked a bit, then went back to bed.

Edited May 12, 2015 by Lisah101

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Spent the day sitting in the sun, walking, napping, reading my book and relaxing. I was amazed at how easy it was to spend a whole day doing nothing. The steel drums at the pool were so nice. it wasn't terribly warm so it wasn't very crowded.

We went back to the dinning room for dinner. I had the poached pear and gorgonzola appetizer - very mild cheese but good

Terry had the French Onion soup

For diner I had Sea-bass. It didn't have much flavor so I added a little salt - ok.

Terry had Beef Bourguignon and he liked it!

I had the Pot de Creme for dessert and it was so good I forgot to take a picture.

Terry LOVED the chocolate cake - exceptionally moist!

After dinner, we walked the outside decks, but went to bed instead of the show. Realizing now we spent a lot of time in bed :)

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We walked off the ship and explored the area near the port. These are posted right on the pier.

I bought some nice silver earrings, a postcard to send to my son Brian and we bought a hand painted birthday card for my sister in law Dede. Then we wandered into pottery place. I had a hard time leaving.

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We left the ship again and first went to buy a stamp to mail the birthday card. After being directed from one place to another, we finally bought a stamp and found the mailbox. Happy Birthday Dede!

It started raining so we abandoned our plans and went back to the ship to change into dry clothes. We got a cup of tea and watched the rain from our balcony. I wasn't very hungry for dinner so we had a salad at the cafe and went to see Delisco for the evening show. He was good, I just wish there was less "act" and more singing. Amazing voice! We were both still awake and we walked around the ship but ended up in our room watching the On Demand documentaries on the Eclipse dry dock and other videos. We are such an exciting couple!

I did get one blurry photo of the lightening that evening

Edited May 13, 2015 by Lisah101

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We met lots of nice folks and sorted out the shared tours. After the short speech by the cruise director, several people used to microphone to call out other parties to connect with those faces we've only been chatting with online. I thought the comments by the cruise director on the phrase "cruise critic" were interesting. She commented on how critic is such a negative term. That part left me with the feeling I wasn't sure she liked cruise critic but I as only half paying attention. Several senior ship staff came but they were on the side when she introduced them and I couldn't see them at all.

After the party I stopped at the cafe for a quick snack

We spent the rest of the afternoon doing nothing but wandering and relaxing before changing going going to the dining room for dinner. I didn't take my camera but I had the watermelon salad which was good. The stuffed mushroom was much better than the one I had on the Celebrity Century. I din't care for the coconut sorbet.

We saw the show "Edge" it seemed good but I had a hard time following some of the musical arrangements. It was weird to see a Bruce Springsteen Tap Dance rendition. I was tired thought so it was probably a good show. I love the acrobats!

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I did buy 3 pieces that are being shipped to me. A platter and a cheese knife (has to be made when the artist gets back from vacation) and a small bowl. I am so frugal - I got the bowl for 1/2 price because of a small imperfection (white bump). I love deals!

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We found out there was a glassworks place nearby where locals also made glass pieces. I love watching so we went there next.

I bought a nice hand made ornament for our Christmas tree. Each trip, we always try to find something made by a local artist for our tree. Some are just small pieces that aren't really ornaments, but we hang them anyway. Its my way of reliving all our adventures each Christmas.

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We spent the afternoon of our second day in Bermuda by again talking about taking the Ferry. First we had to find a beach just to say we were on the beach in Bermuda. Right off the ship is Snorkel Beach.

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We chatted with "Tequila" the bartender about lunch. Unfortunately, they only had a small hut open for the bar, but no food service. We struck up a conversation and ended up sitting down and trying a new drink.

I tried the Dark and Stormy (Dark Rum and ginger beer) and Terry had the Rum Swizzle (dark rum and a bunch of fruit juice).

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------I thought the comments by the cruise director on the phrase "cruise critic" were interesting. She commented on how critic is such a negative term. That part left me with the feeling I wasn't sure she liked cruise critic but I as only half paying attention.

Sue obviously hasn't changed her introduction in 2 years. She said exactly the same in March 2013. I think she was asking that any complaints be directed to her, rather than on line.